


Monster

by Steamed_Tets



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, everytime i had to write vanessa i was just >:))))
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steamed_Tets/pseuds/Steamed_Tets
Summary: Snatcher's origin story
Kudos: 49





	Monster

Cold chains clamped around his arms, the damp, dark, cold basement getting colder by the minute. He looked up at the door,  _ She’ll come back soon. She has to. She’ll see it’s all a big misunderstanding and then she’ll have the guards take the chains off! She’s going to come back!  _ But his thoughts didn’t last. For hours he hung there, well past the point where the blood was no longer flowing to his fingers and his own hands felt like dead weights to him. He couldn’t even remember how long he had been hanging there but was certain it had been more than two days at this point. He was hungry and tired. He couldn’t understand why she had done this, why she would do this. He loved her, that was a well-known fact, he had been excited to get a break from his schooling to come see her. So much so that he had even brought flowers for her for the occasion. But once he had arrived things went poorly, fast. 

Now here he was, chained against the wall in the basement of the manor he called his home. Not knowing what he did wrong to deserve this, his crown lay discarded at his feet. The chains gripping his arms and wrists clamped around tight, hurt more than he would have thought possible. What little he could still feel of the pain that was.  _ She’s not coming back, is she? _ The prince sighed, exhausted from the mere energy it took to keep himself awake. From the pain and crying of the first few hours to now fighting through the bitter cold. It hurt. This was all a misunderstanding, why couldn’t she see that!? 

The cold air was finally sinking in. Is this what the villager’s meant when they said they were chilled to the bone? That couldn’t be true. Being chilled to the bone couldn’t possibly hurt this much. It was almost too much to bear. This couldn’t be it, there was so much more he wanted to do with his life. The panic, the anxiety was almost enough to keep him awake. Almost. His eyes drooped and finally closed, letting his head hang limp as he slept. The cold beckoning him forward despite the fact that he was unable to move. When he finally drifted off to sleep he started to dream. 

It was warm. It felt so incredibly nice. He sat up and realized he was in a field full of vastly different and beautiful flowers. A rainbow of color surrounded him and he felt a smile pull on his cheeks. But it didn’t last. The entire field froze over in one solid wave, leaving him cold and alone. He shivered, wrapping his arms around himself for warmth and rose to his feet, looking far and wide. That’s when he slipped and as soon as his head hit the ground he woke up. 

He rubbed his head with his hand, pushing off of the cold ground to sit upright and rectify the pain in his head. He opened his eyes slowly, realizing slowly that he was on the damp floor of the basement. That’s when he noticed the shoes. He looked up slowly and with caution only to realize that he was staring up at his own body. A feeling of nausea and absolute terror overcame him, pushing himself back several feet, breath heavy and wheezy in the cold air of the basement. His hand came up to his mouth in horror as he leaned against the stone wall across from his own body in front of the door. 

He pulled his hand away in an equal amount of shock and noticed that not only were his fingers very claw-like now, his entire person was a dark figure. A shadow. It made him sick. Everything felt raw and it was overwhelming. Was he dead? No, he couldn’t be, this was all a horrible dream! That’s it! He was still dreaming! Any minute now he would wake up and then Vanessa would come down and take the chains off and everything would be okay after that. Maybe less than okay, but anything was better than this horrible nightmare. 

But he didn’t wake up, and she never came down. 

He sat down there, arms wrapped around his legs, knees pressed to his chest, rocking slightly hoping beyond all hope that this was all some crazy nightmare he was having from being too cold. But somewhere in him, deep down, he knew it wasn’t. He knew it wasn’t a dream, and that it was too late for him, and that she wouldn’t be coming back. At least, not to a prince that was capable of loving her. He wept, silently and tremendously. How did one even go about accepting their own death? He didn’t even know where to begin. She had left him down here because of a misunderstanding, that wasn’t love, it was torture. It was abuse. 

He wiped his face on his arm but couldn’t feel it, something he was starting to slowly notice with how he had warmed up a tad despite the freezing cold basement is that being a mere shadow meant that you didn’t necessarily feel things and that would take some getting used to, perhaps when he was in a better state mentally. He stood up and brushed his legs off, a habit from brushing dirt off his pants so many times. He slowly walked over to his body. The mere thought of that scared him. He looked the forever sleeping prince in the face, not that the prince could look back at him anymore. It was like a fucked up mirror. He stared at the shell of his former self a moment longer before, hesitatingly, reaching his hands up and pulling the cape off of the prince's shoulders.

Creaking of a door alerted his attention and he dashed for the stairs leading to the storm door. Clamping a hand over his mouth in terror as the one he had previously longed for had finally arrived. Vanessa almost crept into the open basement, as though she was trying to prank someone. She nearly glided over to where the prince currently hung, in almost the same way she had left him all those hours ago. She seemed to whisper something to him, but the shadow couldn’t hear her from where he was, and when she had grown irritated from the prince’s lack of response she had firmly gripped his face and raised it to look at her. The tension in the air had been so thick you could cut it with a knife, and when the queen had finally realized that her prince was no more and would no longer give her a response, she screamed. 

Blood curling, bone-chilling, and shrill like nails on a chalkboard she screamed, wailed, sobbed if the shadow had to take a guess from the changes in pitch. Agonizing minutes ticked by but the shadow did not dare make a sound for fear of being spotted. He wasn’t even certain that he could be seen anymore but that wasn’t something that he was willing to risk. After a short eternity, the queen finally rose to her feet, dashing out of the basement and slamming the door behind her, wood splinters flying off the door.

This was his chance! Using all of his strength he broke the storm doors wide open only to be met with a blizzard outside. He started to run, as fast as his legs would carry him to outrun the ever-growing mountain of snow and ice surrounding the mansion. He was afraid this would happen someday, Vanessa was an incredibly powerful and unstable force of nature, he had only hoped there was something he could do to prevent it. The further away from the mansion he got, the warmer it became, but it didn’t last long, the ice and snow followed him and then suddenly he heard a piercing scream. 

He chanced a look back at the mansion and what he saw scared him to his core. Vanessa, or what was left of her as a dark mass with horrifying energy stood on what was formerly his porch. Ice rushed over the yard like an ocean wave and the shadow took off running again. He needed to outrun the ice, he needed to outrun  _ her. _ With a lone soul in front of him, he scooped her up in his arms and kept running, pushing his legs harder than he ever had before. Was it adrenaline? Or fear that kept pushing him so hard? With every step the ice was getting closer and closer and so was  _ she. _

Once he’d made it across the bridge he stopped, letting the soul he helped go. He turned towards the bridge again, throwing the cape off as he did. It hadn’t really been helping him anyways. Vanessa stopped at the opposite end of the bridge, a bone-chilling, loud hiss came out of her mouth that slowly became a scream. In a fit of anger, the shadow took a deep breath, his hands starting to glow, and once he opened his eyes and threw down his hands, a powerful blue force shot from his fingertips, taking the bridge down with it. Then all that remained were the two ends and a large valley that separated her from the rest of the forest. 

The shadow sighed, turning away from his old life and headed into the forest. He didn’t know what would be in store for him after this, but at least now he could truly be free. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That had been nearly a century ago. Now, the Snatcher spent his days reading old books stolen from the mansion and capturing the souls of whoever would be so unfortunate enough to stumble their way into his forest. 


End file.
